This is a blog centering on Dr. Petrosino's course at The University of Texas at Austin entitled " EDC 365E Project Based Instruction in STEM Education." This is the capstone course in the UTeach Natural Sciences professional development sequence. It also serves as a forum for Dr. Petrosino's thoughts and ideas on Project Based Instruction and educational reform.

Friday, September 25, 2009

Friday September 25 - PBI FALL 09 Project Development and Field Experience

Course Syllabus:PBI FALL 09 Project Development and Field Experience

Enacted Curriculum:During class, students received group contracts (to negotiate their group goals and how they will hold each other accountable) and Project Planning forms from the PBL handbook.The students will use these documents to summarize the big ideas for their project; identify content standards, key skills, and habits of mind the students will learn; plan the assessment (define products and artifacts for the project); map the overall project and what they expect the students to learn; and identify potential problems that might arise and describe how they will manage the process.Students worked in their teams to write their driving question on a poster along with a description of what the student generated final product might be.Each team hung their poster on the wall and everyone circulated the room with post-it notes to provide feedback to each team.The teams were able to use this feedback to refine their driving questions.

About Me

Dr. Petrosino is a graduate of Columbia University's Teachers College (MA, 1990) and received his PhD from Vanderbilt University (1998). He completed a post-doc at the University of Wisconsin where he was a member of the National Center for Improving Student Learning and Achievement in Mathematics and Science (NCISLA). In 1999 he accepted a Professorship at the University of Texas and received tenure in 2004. He holds the Elizabeth G. Gibb Endowed Fellowship in Mathematics Education. Dr. Petrosino has published over 20 peer reviewed journal articles, made over 100 national and international conference presentations and has supervised a dozen doctoral dissertations. He has received over 30 million dollars in grants from the National Science Foundation, the Department of Education and the McDonnel Foundation for Cognitive Studies. He is a founding professor of the nationally recognized UTeach Natural Sciences preservice teacher education program. From July 2007 to August 2009 he served as the Assistant to the Superintendent in the Hoboken School District.